Wheel assemblies are secured to various types of products to allow the products to be more easily and conveniently transported. Wheeling is generally a more effective means of transporting a product than other means such as carrying, especially when the product is large or heavy. Many wheel assemblies include a rigid base, an axle fixed to the base and wheels positioned along the axle. The axle is rigid; often a single steel bar or stub axles welded or rigidly fixed on opposite sides of the product. The wheels are generally located at fixed positions along the axle; typically at the axle's opposite ends. The axle and wheels must extend sufficiently beyond the product's boundaries to provide a stable base and be sufficiently designed to support a heavy load when the product is wheeled.
The known axle-wheel arrangement typically makes the product larger and heavier, and therefore, more costly for the manufacturer or distributor to package and transport. To reduce size for shipping, wheel assemblies are often completely removed before shipping, shipped separately, and then reattached when the product and wheel assemblies arrive. This is time consuming, costly and sometimes, detaching and reattaching the wheel assembly damages the product. Even if it is desirable to detach and reattach the wheel assembly, it is still adds cost and expense.
There is a need for a cost-effective wheel assembly that can be used in connection with products designed to support large and/or heavy loads and that can be quickly and easily transformed to a more compact arrangement for packaging, shipping or transporting both while attached to the product or when detached. There is also a need for a wheel assembly that can be quickly and easily expanded, from the compact arrangement to a use position, as necessary, to efficiently wheel the product, for example, when the product reaches its final destination.